Tom Crean on Big Ten teleconference

Tom Crean was on the Big Ten teleconference this morning. Some of his thoughts.

— Much of today’s Big Ten teleconference was devoted to fan behavior and the interaction of players with fans, thanks of course to the Marcus Smart/Jeff Orr incident from Saturday night. Crean said you have to ask your players to block out what fans are saying even if that’s difficult to do in a competitive environment. Said it’s tough to do anything to get fans to stay loud and spirited and hostile without being insulting, and said it’s up to administration and security to remove fans who are taking it too far.

— Crean mentioned after the game that he wanted to go to zone on Minnesota’s last full offensive possession, which resulted in DeAndre Mathieu’s driving layup. I asked him after the game what happened that kept them from going to zone, and he said he didn’t really have an answer and would watch the film and get one. After watching the film, Crean said Monday that the Hoosiers would have switched to a zone in the event of a high ball screen, which didn’t occur. The Hoosiers were in a man-to-man look the entirety of the possession and showed no inclination to switch to zone. Mathieu simply beat IU defender Evan Gordon on a one-on-one move.

— When asked about Penn State, Crean said they remain one of the hardest teams to play in the league. Though the Nittany Lions have struggled recently, he said the biggest difference in the games they won against Ohio State, Purdue and Nebraska was the play of forward Brandon Taylor.

— Crean was asked about the development of Jeremy Hollowell and Troy Williams. He said that Williams had been putting in good weeks of practice, and Hollowell putting in good days. Said Hollowell would develop more when he could stretch those days into weeks and be more consistent.